268 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



eliminate unnatural control of price. The figures col- 

 lected by the Bureau of Labor show that in many places 

 the retail price of beef is, in round numbers, fifty per 

 cent, higher than it was a few years ago to the con- 

 sumer. And the retail price of pork has gone up at a 

 still higher rate. The possible contingency of lower- 

 ing the price of beef by importation from foreign coun- 

 tries is not one that appeals either to the patriotism or 

 the pocket-books of the American farmer. As Henry 

 Wallace, one of the deans of agricultural editorial 

 writing in the United States, has very aptly remarked: 



It is not likely that the farmers would consider themselves 

 particularly obliged to grow enough cattle irrespective of 

 profits so as to keep the packing houses running at full capac- 

 ity and thus enable the packers to make a maximum of profit. 



They have not yet forgotten 1908, when the banks of the 

 West were full of packers' paper, which, it was claimed, did 

 not exceed in value the meats in cold storage and could have 

 been paid off by simply stopping the purchase of cattle for six 

 weeks. 



What they did was to cut down their purchases for three 

 months and every man that had cattle or hogs to sell at that 

 time had to take about two-thirds of their value until the 

 debts of the packers were paid. Many of the farmers still 

 remember this and will not soon forget it. 



